


Christmas Party

by Ailette



Category: Fake News, Fake News RPF, The Daily Show
Genre: Imported, John Oliver/Rob Riggle (implied), M/M, fluffy Christmas thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-16
Updated: 2008-12-16
Packaged: 2018-02-15 03:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2214258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephen can't attend the Christmas Party this year and Jon is moping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Party

Jon didn’t know who was to blame for this year’s Christmas decorations, but he’d rather never meet the person responsible for hanging brightly neon-colored ceramic cell phones on the studio’s Christmas tree. Hell, he had nothing to do with the Christian holiday and still felt more than a little disturbed by the ornaments. He took another sip from his drink, pleading for the alcohol to maybe transform those things into actual Christmas baubles. Or eagles. Or maybe little Hanukkah lights. Anything was better than this. Good thing Stephen wasn’t here to see those monstrosities.

Jon sighed softly, gaze finally leaving the offending tree and sweeping across the room filled with his more or less drunk colleagues. The Daily Show’s annual Christmas Party was going well, obnoxiously loud remixes of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” blasting from somewhere near the open bar; the staff laughing, chatting, and dancing. He seemed to be the only one who wasn’t really in the party mood. And apparently, someone had noticed.

“Don’t look too cheery, people might actually think you’re enjoying yourself,” came the amused growl from his left and Jon turned to see Rob Riggle and John Oliver standing there, both clutching too-full glasses of what looked like blood with bits of meat in them, but was actually the fruit punch one of the writers had brought. Maybe a left-over from Halloween, Jon mused distractedly before he noticed his two correspondents where exchanging a worried look in front of him.

“Only looking out for the kids,” he replied belatedly, but John had the decency to still roll his eyes.

“Please don’t make us call you ‘Daddy’ again. I’m still recovering from the last time,” he pleaded, voice surprisingly steady. Jon could feel his eyebrows go skywards as he conceded that maybe his colleague’s flushed cheeks didn’t have anything to do with the free alcohol and maybe more with the fact that his and Rob’s ties had switched owners since he’d last seen them in the room together.

For a moment, Jon was struggling to find the next witty reply to this. The light banter between all of them was familiar territory, a game to lighten the mood sometimes; a safety net to fall back on when they didn’t know what else to say to each other at other times. Only now it seemed like Jon had forgotten how to let himself fall, or like someone had cut the net right out under him just as he finally did. He opened his mouth stupidly, waiting for his brain to send some words out, any words really, when his pocket started vibrating.

Saved by the gong.

Faster than usual, he fished his cell out of his jacket and flipped it open without looking at the caller ID, too grateful for the rescue to prolong the thanking any longer than absolutely necessary.

“Stewart,” he breathed into the speaker, shooting the two men in front of him a sheepish smile.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Stephen!” His voice finally went from pure relief to actual happiness. “Are you at the airport yet?”

John sent Rob another meaningful glance and turned to go, not so gently grabbing his fellow correspondent’s arm and tugging when he didn’t follow immediately.

“Yeah, traffic wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” Jon could hear the soft thud of heavy luggage hitting the ground before Stephen continued. “How’s the party?”

“I think half the staff is sleeping with each other in the offices down the hall. I’m the only one not getting any today!” Jon whined and pointedly ignored Aasif choking on his drink a few feet from him as well as the incredulous look he received immediately afterwards.

Deep laughter came through the line and Jon couldn’t help but smile at the sound. “At least you know not to follow Sam and Jason anywhere when they leave the room anymore.”

Jon closed his eyes briefly, groaning into the speaker. “Don’t remind me.” He quickly searched the room for the married coupled only to realize that he’d seen them slip out about over an hour ago.

“Why did you want me to call, anyway? Not that I’m not always happy to follow your strange and sometimes questionable wishes, but I don’t actually see the sense in this one. I saw you only a few hours ago.”

Jon’s mood perked further at the words. He’d nearly forgotten about that over all the party awkwardness! Clearly, a part of his brain went wherever Stephen went these days. Hopefully his trip to Stockholm wouldn’t affect Jon’s capability of thinking anymore than it already had, or he’d have to find a replacement for his next couple of shows. “Look in your backpack.”

He could hear the rustling of clothes against the speaker as Stephen clamped his cell between ear and shoulder in order to open his carry-on. Jon smirked a little as he imagined his partner standing in the wide open hall of the airport, surrounded and passed by dozens of people as he eagerly peered into his dorky Captain America backpack he’d insisted on taking.

“ _Jon_.” The sigh sounded so long-suffering; if Jon hadn’t known any better he’d have thought Stephen had just discovered a black hole in his bag. “Why is there a present in my carry-on?”

“Take a guess,” Jon quipped, grin growing wider by the second.

“It’s not Christmas yet,” Stephen muttered reproachful. Jon coughed loudly into the speaker and he was pretty sure he could hear Stephen’s eyes roll miles away.

“And it’s not Hanukkah yet, either.”

Jon sighed theatrically. “Just open it, Stephen.”

If Stephen gave any response, it was muffled by the rustling and ripping of paper that followed. “An mp3 player? Jon, you’re aware that I actually _have_ —”

“Yes, I am. But you always shut your iPhone off when you get on a plane. Plus, this one’s special.”

Stephen snorted. “I can see that. The sparkly stars and hearts are a dead give-away, I fear.”

“It was either that one or the one with the pink unicorns on them,” Jon said defensively. He should have gone out to buy that thing sooner, should have known that the stores would be nearly empty if he went shopping only a few days before Christmas. But how should he have known that the store he usually went to would only have girly music players left? Besides, he’d been so busy with all the preparations; he’d nearly forgotten to buy an mp3 player at all.

“Aww. Why didn’t you get me the pink unicorns? You know how much I love those,” Stephen uttered distractedly as he tried to figure out where the ‘On’-button on this thing was. “Ah!” Triumph. Curious, he hit a few more buttons until he was viewing the playlists on the little red-on-black display. The first 19 that were visible without scrolling down all had the same title, just the track numbers varying. Experimentally, he hit ‘play’ and brought one of the headphones up to his good ear as he lowered the cell. Was that Jon’s voice? He listened intensely over the commotion around him for a few moments until he was certain that it was indeed his lover’s voice he heard and that he also knew what was being said. Laughing, he lifted the phone back to his ear.

“You recorded The Lord of The Rings for me?”

Jon could feel his ears heat up at the open joy in Stephen’s voice and unconsciously started shuffling his feet. “I just thought that you would… Well, what with you being so nervous whenever we get on a plane. You always say my voice calms you down, but since I couldn’t come with you this time and you refuse to use your cell while in the air…” he trailed off, now feeling a little embarrassed as he waited for Stephen to say something.

“You could have just bought the audiobook, you know. I’d been kinda wondering what you’ve been doing over the last few weeks, but if you’ve been busy reading over a thousand pages—”

“I put some of your favourite albums on there, too. You don’t have to listen to the recording if you don’t want to. I mean, it’s not very good, anyway. I just thought it might be… But I had to do it at home and it wasn’t quite the same as recording a professional audiobook, you know?” He forced out a chuckle, fearing he might just choke on it otherwise. “But I suck at editing the stuff and didn’t have that much time, so it’s really sloppy work and I can fully understand if you don’t—”

“Jon,” Stephen’s voice cut through his rambling and Jon shut up immediately. Why did he always follow his stupid instincts? They always got him in trouble. He should have known this was too much. It had to make Stephen uncomfortable, they haven’t even been together for a year and yet he just had to ruin it with his childish eagerness.

“I love it.”

“I know, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have…” Stephen let out a soft laugh at the other end of the line as he imagined Jon’s double-take. “Wait. You what?”

“I said I love it. It’s a wonderful idea. Thank you, Jon.” There was a little pause before Stephen playfully added, “And I can’t wait to here you speak Elvish.”

The comedian was sure he spent at least an hour gaping stupidly at the silly Christmas tree in front of him.

“Stop looking like that, you’ll scare the others,” Stephen advised in an amused tone as he fingered the little device in his hands lovingly.

“How do you know what I look like at the moment?” Jon asked, his usual demeanor slowly coming back to him as a smile slowly made its way back across his lips.

“Because I’ve got spies and cameras watching you around the clock. Obviously only to make sure no one hurts my _preciousss_.”

“Obviously,” Jon laughed.

“Uh oh,” Stephen said, falling back from his Gollum imitation to his normal voice. “Much as I’d enjoy keeping you away from the festivities for another few hours, I’m afraid I just heard them calling out my name over speaker. I better hurry.”

“Okay. Call me when you get there?”

Stephen’s voice sounded more hurried now, like he’d started running. He probably had. “You know I will. Even if that means waking you up at ungodly hours and you being cranky for at least two days and blaming me for waking you up.”

“It’s worth it just to hear my voice though, isn’t it?” Jon teased, speaking a little quieter even though he could hear his partner talking to someone at the airport.

“It was. Now I’ve got hours worth of your dreamy voice to keep me company without going through all the trouble.” Jon could practically hear Stephen’s eyebrows waggle. “Alright, got to hang up now. _Im mêl le_ .”

It felt like Jon’s cheeks were about to be torn apart, but nothing could have suppressed his brilliant smile at this point. “I love you too.” As he hung up and shot the Christmas tree in front of him another look, the tacky fake cell phones didn’t seem that bad anymore. In fact, he should find one of his more drunken colleagues and ask them to make a call for him, he decided with a smirk as he plugged a deep purple cell from its branch.

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/28794.html)  
> Beta: freakydarling . THE most wonderful beta in the whole world!  
> A/N: This is the first one of the Christmas Fics (for raysgal ) and my first fic in this fandom. \o/ Though I'm incredibly late in posting this, since I finished this about two weeks ago. I'm so lazy at the moment! :o Also: First RPS! I have the feeling that I should be freaking out about that. ...still waiting for that to happen. ;)


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